The Power of Positive Thinking

by Norman Vincent Peale

you can have peace of mind, improved health, and a never ceasing flow of energy. In short, that your life can be full of joy and satisfaction.

It is a pity that people should let themselves be defeated by the problems, cares, and difficulties of human existence, and it is also quite unnecessary.

shall outline, obstacles are simply not permitted to destroy your happiness and well-being. You need be defeated only if you are willing to be.

It is written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life.

you read this book thoughtfully, carefully absorbing its teachings, and if you will sincerely and persistently practice the principles and formulas set forth herein, you can experience an amazing improvement within yourself. By using the techniques outlined here you can modify or change the circumstances in which you now live, assuming control over them rather than continuing to be directed by them.

By mastering these principles, you will enjoy a delightful new sense of well being.

the results are invariably the same: new life, new power, increased efficiency, greater happiness.

You can develop creative faith in yourself—faith that is justified.

“As you walk down the street tonight I suggest that you repeat certain words which I shall give you. Say them over several times after you get into bed. When you awaken tomorrow, repeat them three times before arising. On the way to your important appointment say them three additional times.

He never ceases to express amazement at the way in which things now flow towards rather than away from him. His personality has taken on a positive, not negative, character so that he no longer repels success, but, on the contrary, draws it to him. He now has an authentic confidence in his own powers.

The greatest secret for eliminating the inferiority complex, which is another term for deep and profound self-doubt, is to fill your mind to overflowing with faith.

‘when a big trouble comes along, you have to pray deep prayers’.

“The trouble with lots of prayers is they ain’t got no suction.” Drive your prayers deep into your doubts, fears, inferiorities. Pray deep, big prayers that have plenty of suction and you will come up with powerful and vital faith.

If your mind is obsessed by thoughts of insecurity and inadequacy it is, of course, due to the fact that such ideas have dominated your thinking over a long period of time. Another and more positive pattern of ideas must be given the mind, and that is accomplished by repetitive suggestion or confidence ideas.

He pointed to two clips fastened on the instrument panel of the car just below the windscreen and, reaching into the glove compartment, took out a pack of small cards. He selected one and slipped it beneath the clip. It read: “If ye have faith...nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew xvii. 20.) He removed that one, shuffled expertly through the cards with one hand as he drove, selected another, and placed it under the clip. This one read, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

I have discovered that while a man drives he thinks all kinds of thoughts. If his pattern of thought is negative, he will think many negative thoughts during the day and that, of course, is bad for him; but that is the way I used to be. I used to drive around all day between calls thinking fear and defeat thoughts, and incidentally that is one reason my sales were down. But since I have been using these cards as I drive and committing the words to memory, I have learned to think differently. The old insecurities that used to haunt me are just about all gone, and instead of thinking fear thoughts of defeat and ineffectiveness, 1 think thoughts of faith and courage.

Deep within themselves they mistrust their ability to meet responsibilities or to grasp opportunities. Always they are beset by the vague and sinister fear that something is not going to be quite right. They do not believe that they have it in them to be what they want to be, and so they try to make themselves content with something less than that of which they are capable. Thousands upon thousands go crawling through life on their hands and knees, defeated and afraid.

“Maybe I can start all over again if I can just get some confidence, if I can get the feel of some power within me.” Well, he got it, and he did start all over again. But he did so only when he changed his viewpoint, his mental attitude. Faith swept away his doubts, and more than enough power to overcome all his difficulties emerged from within him.

Any fact facing us, however difficult, even seemingly hopeless, is not so important as our attitude towards that fact.

But if, on the contrary, you mentally visualise and affirm and reaffirm your assets and keep your thoughts on them, emphasising them to the fullest extent, you will rise out of any difficulty regardless of what it may be. Your inner powers will reassert themselves and, with the help of God, lift you from defeat to victory.

One of the most powerful concepts, one which is a sure cure for lack of confidence, is the thought that God is actually with you and helping you.

Feelings of confidence depend upon the type of thoughts that habitually occupy your mind.

“Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

“Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” Practise confidence and faith and your fears and insecurities will soon have no power over you.

“General, never take counsel of your fears.”

The secret is to fill your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence, and security.

He regained confidence in himself and his own powers by a simple process of thought conditioning.

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture.

So always picture ‘success’ no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.

Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. Depreciate every so-called obstacle. Minimise them. Difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated, but they must be seen for only what they are. They must not be inflated by fear thoughts.

Make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 per cent.

Put yourself in God’s hands. To do that simply state, “I am in God’s hands.” Then believe you are NOW receiving all the power you need. ‘Feel’ it flowing into you. Affirm that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke xvii. 21) in the form of adequate power to meet life’s demands. 10. Remind yourself

Believe that you now RECEIVE power from Him.

didn’t go to bed with an ear full of trouble. I went to sleep with a mind full of peace.”

This man employed a simple technique for having a peaceful mind. He emptied his mind and he received peace as a gift from God.

“Many of my patients have nothing wrong with them except their thoughts.

A primary method for gaining a mind full of peace is to practise emptying the mind.

I recommend a mind-emptying at least twice a day, more often if necessary. Definitely practise emptying your mind of fears, hates, insecurities, regrets, and guilt feelings. The mere fact that you consciously make this effort to empty your mind tends to give relief.

Haven’t you experienced a sense of release when you have been able to pour out to somebody whom you can trust worrisome matters that lay heavy upon the heart?

So now and then during every day allow motion pictures of peace slowly to cross your mind.

Practise the technique of suggestive articulation, that is, repeat audibly some peaceful words. Words have profound suggestive power, and there is healing in the very saying of them.

Use such a word as ‘tranquillity’. Repeat that word slowly several times. Tranquillity is one of the most beautiful and melodic of all English words, and the mere saying of it tends to induce a tranquil state.

Another healing word is ‘serenity’. Picturise serenity as you say it.

A man of my acquaintance who achieved a remarkable peace of mind has the habit of writing on cards unusual quotations expressing peacefulness. He carries one of the cards in his wallet at all times, referring to it frequently until each quotation is committed to memory. He says that each such idea dropped into the subconscious ‘lubricates’ his mind with peace.

The words of the Bible have a particularly strong therapeutic value. Drop them into your mind, allowing them to ‘dissolve’ in consciousness, and they will spread a healing balm over your entire mental structure. This is one of the simplest processes to perform and also one of the most effective in attaining peace of mind.

There are other practical ways by which you can develop serenity and quiet attitudes. One way is through your conversation. Depending upon the words we use and the tone in which we use them, we can talk ourselves into being nervous, high-strung, and upset. We can talk ourselves into either negative or positive results. By our speech we can also achieve quiet reactions. Talk gently to be peaceful.

Watch your manner of speech then if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind.

In fact, what often passes for thinking starts with talk. Therefore if the average conversation is scrutinised and disciplined to be sure that it contains peaceful expressions, the result will be peaceful ideas and ultimately, therefore, a peaceful mind.

Conceive of your mind as the surface of a body of water and see how nearly quiet you can make it, so that there is not a ripple. When you have attained a quiescent state, then begin to listen for the deeper sounds of harmony and beauty and of God that are to be found in the essence of silence.

“Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves.”